Not dead

Just very, very busy. Sorry for the paucity of posts.

While I haven’t been posting, I HAVE been doing lots of things. Interesting things. And some not-so-interesting things. For instance, in the last week alone I’ve accomplished all this:

• I worked two 13-hour days and one 21-hour day. That’s right: a 21-hour day. I left my office at 5:30 am on Friday. As the sun was coming up. It was like doing the walk of shame with your hair (and dignity and genital health) still intact. And then I had to be back at noon on Friday for a client call. And I’m STILL tired. And my workload has STILL not let up. ACK!

• I ran three miles on Monday. That’s it. I should be running 5–8 miles three times a week, but with this schedule I guess I’ll take what I can get. I did manage to squeeze in a nice 12-mile run on Saturday. In the rain. Which I love.

• I took a two-hour architectural boat tour of the Chicago riverfront on Tuesday as part of a company summer outing. I end up taking this tour one way or another every year, and every year it gives me more reasons to believe that Chicago is the coolest city.

• I totally copied this hot straight guy sitting with his wife and kids in front of me on the boat tour. He was obviously a runner, see, and his legs were not only lean and muscular and sexy, but they were shaved and tan. They looked totally hot, and since my legs are feeling kinda lean and muscular and sexy as I train for the marathon, I wanted in on some of that hotness and tanness. So I shaved my legs this weekend. And I put on two coats of fake tan. And now I itch like a woolen bathing garment.

• I went party-hopping like the vapid socialite I am. In the space of seven days I managed to squeeze in a good-bye party for my friend Bill in one of the funky-coolest apartments in Chicago (think Spanish art colony with a killer view), a birthday party for a guy I barely know, a small celebration of my 5-year Chicagoversary, a housewarming for some friends who’ve been renovating a grand old manse for over three years and finally moved in for good, and a client “barbecue” that ended up being a five-star catered outdoor dining experience in one of the modern-coolest condos in Chicago (think post-nuclear industrial loft with a breathtaking view of the Chicago skyline). I was invited to two more parties last week (hey, when it rains it pours), but even us vapid socialites need time to eat and sleep and shave our legs.

• I saw The Wedding Crashers (check out the younger lawyer in the first scene—he's from my home town!) and Batman Begins. The former was pretty good—and this guy is pretty hot in it—and the latter was AWESOME.

• I also went through 10+ years’ accumulation of my unworn clothing and ended up hauling a good 150 pounds of stuff in seven huge sacks to the Brown Elephant yesterday. It took me three or four hours to try on every pair of pants and jeans and shorts I owned, do a butt check and an embarrassing pleats check and an even-more-embarrassing fat-gooey-waist check—and I ended up sending over half of it all off to find a new home and fend for itself in the real world. And that was just the pants. I still have more shirts and shoes than most well-stocked department stores—all bought on sale, of course—and don’t even get me started on the coats and sweaters I haven’t worn since Dubya was fighting evil in Vietnam. Watch this space for all the embarrassing pleated pants pictures!